Reading: BRAINPOWER: COMPLEX ORGAN CONTROLS YOUR EVERY THOUGHT AND MOVE
How did you get here?
No, no, no! It's not a question about your conception or birth.
How did you get here? On this page. Reading this story.
The answer is a lot more complex than, "My teacher told me to read it" or "I clicked on it by accident."
The answer involves thought, as in "I want to get on the Internet"; movement — pressing the computer’s power
button and grasping a mouse; memory—like recalling how to use a browser or a search engine; and word recognition
such as "Brainpower" and an understanding of its meaning.
In short, the answer involves a wrinkled, pinkish-gray, three-pound organ that is primarily composed of fat and
water and goes by the name of brain. You got to this article because that jelly-like mass topping off your spinal cord fired
electrical signals to your hand telling it how to move. You got to this article because your brain stored information about
using a computer and the definition of words that you learned years ago. You got to this article because your brain is
working.
Keep reading to find out how it functions, if it repairs itself and if the effects of drug use are permanent.
THE POWER TO ACT
The brain has three major parts -- the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brain stem. The brain stem connects the spinal
cord and the brain. It controls functions that keep people alive such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and food
digestion. Those activities occur without any thought. You aren't telling yourself, "Inhale. Exhale. Inhale." You're just
breathing.
Things are different in the cerebellum. That region controls voluntary movement. When you want to lift your fork, wave
your hand, brush your hair or wink at a cutie, you form the thought and then an area in the cerebellum translates your
will into action. It happens so quickly. Think about how little time passes between your desire to continue reading this
sentence and the time it takes your eyes to move to this word or this one. It seems automatic, but it isn't.
Neurons, the basic functional units of the nervous system, are three-part units and are key to brain function. They are
comprised of a nerve cell body, axon and dendrite, and they power the rapid-fire process that turns thought into
movement.
The thought moves as an electrical signal from the nerve cell down the axon to a dendrite, which looks like branches at
the end of nerve cells. The signal jumps from the end of the dendrite on one cell across the space, called a synapse, to
the dendrite of another cell with the help of chemicals called neurotransmitters. That signal continues jumping from cell
to cell until it reaches the muscle you need to wave, wink or walk.
The cerebrum is the largest of the three brain sections, accounts for about 85 percent of the brain's weight, and has four
lobes. The lobes-frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital -- each have different functions. They get their names from the
sections of the skull that are next to them.
The parietal lobe helps people understand what they see and feel, while the frontal lobe determines personality and
emotions. Vision functions are in the occipital lobe, and hearing and word recognition abilities are in the temporal lobe.
A CRITICAL AGE
Because the brain's healthy functioning is essential to living and determines quality of life, doctors emphasize protecting
the organ from injury and chemical abuse.
There is a consensus among researchers that brain cells regenerate throughout life, said Doug Postels, a pediatric
neurosurgeon in New Orleans, but that new growth happens very slowly after a certain age. "The size of the brain
doesn't increase much after 3," Postels explains.
During the first three years of life, the brain experiences most of its growth and develops most of its potential for
learning. That's the time frame in which synaptogenesis, or the creation of pathways for brain cells to communicate,
occurs.
Doctors generally accept that cut-off point for two reasons, Postels said. First, in situations where doctors removed parts
of the brains of patients younger than 3 to correct disorders, the remaining brain sections developed to assume the role
of the portions those doctors removed. But when physicians performed the same surgery on older patients, that
adaptability function did not occur.
Second, "We know from experiments that if you deprive people of intellectual stimulation and put them in a dark room,
that it produces permanent changes in the brain," Postels said. "That occurs most dramatically before age 3. After that
age, it's impossible to ethically do a study."
Previous research produced information about the effects of stimulation deprivation, but modern ethical guidelines
prohibit such research on people because of the potentially harmful outcome.
DRUG DAMAGE
Because so little recovery occurs to brains damaged after age 3, the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain might be
lasting. Doctors know what inhalants, steroids, marijuana, cocaine and alcohol do to the brain when people use them.
"The question scientists can't answer now is if the damage is permanent," said Sue Rusche, co- author of "False
Messengers," a book on how addictive drugs change the brain.
Inhalants, such as glue, paint, gasoline and aerosols, destroy the outer lining of nerve cells and make them unable to
communicate with one another. In 1993, more than 60 young people died from sniffing inhalants, according to National
Families in Action, a drug education center based in Atlanta.
Studies have found that marijuana use hinders memory, learning, judgment and reaction times, while steroids cause
aggression and violent mood swings. Ecstasy use is rising among young people, Rusche said, and scientists have found
that drug destroys neurons that make serotonin, a chemical crucial in controlling sleep, violence, mood swings and
sexual urges.
While doctors and scientists know about some effects drugs have on the brain, they don't have a full picture, Rusche
said.
"When people start using a drug, the scientists know nothing about it. These people are volunteering to be guinea pigs,"
said Rusche, who is co-founder and executive director of National Families in Action. "Once enough people take it,
scientists apply for grants and start studying it. People are inventive. They find new drugs or new ways to take old drugs-
like crack from cocaine.
"There's a lot we won't know about until later," she said. "The classic example is cigarettes. We allowed people to smoke
for 100 years before we knew about all the horrible things that nicotine will do.
Reading: RESEARCH STUDY “THE BRAIN’S LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES SEEM TO WORK TOGETHER BETTER IN
MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED MIDDLE-SCHOOL YOUTH”
WASHINGTON- There really may be something different about the brains of math-heads. Mathematically gifted teens
did better than average-ability teens and college students on tests that required the two halves of the brain to
cooperate, as reported in the April issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological Association
(APA).
In the study, a joint effort of psychologists at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences at
Fort Benning, Ga. and the University of Melbourne, Australia, researchers studied 60 right-handed males: 18
mathematically gifted (averaging nearly 14 years in age), 18 of average math ability (averaging just over 13), and 24
college students (averaging about 20). Math giftedness seems to favor boys over girls, appearing an estimated six to 13
times more often. It's not known why but prenatal exposure to testosterone is suspected to be one influence due to its
selective benefit to the right half of the brain.
The gifted boys were recruited from a Challenges for Youth-Talented program at Iowa State University. Whereas the
average Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) math score for college-bound high-school seniors is 500 (out of 800), the
mathematically gifted boys' average SAT math score in middle school was 620.
The boys viewed letter patterns flashed on the left or right sides of a computer screen and had to indicate whether two
patterns matched or not - a simple way of learning how the brain responds to data put before either the left or right
visual field, corresponding to processing in the right or left brain because the input generally crosses over to the other
side.
The letter patterns were presented in three conditions - one-sided, to the right hemisphere (left eye); one-sided, to the
left hemisphere (right eye); or bilaterally (both eyes). There were two types of tasks -- "local," saying two letters
matched or mismatched on the small letters that went into making big letters (for example, a big T whose two strokes
were made of smaller T's), and "global," saying two big letters matched or mismatched.
For the average teens and college students, the left-brain hemisphere was faster for local matches and the right brain
hemisphere was faster for global matches. This fit prior research, which has indicated that the left hemisphere is adept
at processing visual "parts," in this case the letter details, while the right hemisphere is more adept at analyzing visual
"wholes," in this case the global shapes of the big letters.
However, the mathematically gifted boys showed no such hemispheric differences. Those who were precocious in math
were equally good at processing global and local elements with either hemisphere, suggesting more interactive,
cooperative left and right brains.
In addition, whereas average-ability boys and college students were slower on cooperative trials, which presented letter
patterns on both sides of the screen, the math-gifted showed the opposite pattern. They were slower on one-sided
trials, but when a task "asked" both sides of the brain to work together, they were considerably faster than the other
boys
The study supports the growing notion that the mathematically gifted are better at relaying and integrating information
between the cerebral hemispheres. Says co-author Michael O'Boyle, PhD, "It's not that you have a special math module
somewhere in your brain, but rather that the brain's particular functional organization - which allows right-hemisphere
contributions to be better integrated into the overall cognitive/behavioral equation -- predisposes it towards the use of
high-level imagery and spatial skills, which in turn just happen to be very useful when it comes to doing math
reasoning."
The research supports the broader notion that "the functional (though not necessarily structural) organization of the
brain may be an important contributor to individual differences in cognitive abilities, talents and, at the very least,
information-processing styles," says O'Boyle.
He adds, "Various expressions of exceptionality, such as giftedness in math, music or art, may be the by-product of a
brain that has functionally organized itself in a qualitatively different way than the usual left/right hemispheric
asymmetry."
At the same time, O'Boyle is not sure whether the findings could apply to math education in general. "Our work may
perhaps have something to say about the optimal timing of when a particular brain is most 'ready to learn' or acquire a
given skill, but I don't think we can 'create' a math genius without the innate talent already there," he says.
Finally, given the rising use of testosterone by adult men, O'Boyle cautions that, "Testosterone taken later in life will not
help your math, as the window of influence on brain development is pretty much prenatal. It may enhance muscle mass,
but it is unlikely to help you solve calculus problems."
Source: "Interhemispheric interaction during global-local processing in mathematically gifted adolescents, average-
ability youth, and college students," Harnam Singh, Ph.D., U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social
Sciences, and Michael W. O'Boyle, PhD, University of Melbourne, Australia; Neuropsychology, Vol. 18, No. 2.
Reporters: Michael O'Boyle , from the American Psychological Association, available from
[Link]
Reading: YOU CAN GROW YOUR INTELLIGENCE
New Research Shows the Brain Can Be Developed Like a Muscle
Many people think of the brain as a mystery. They don’t know much about intelligence and how it
works. When they do think about what intelligence is, many people believe that a person is born either smart,
average, or dumb—and stays that way for life. But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle—it
changes and gets stronger when you use it. And scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows
and gets stronger when you learn. Everyone knows that when you lift weights, your muscles get bigger and
you get stronger. A person who can’t lift 20 pounds when they start exercising can get strong enough to lift 100
pounds after working out for a long time. That’s because the muscles become larger and stronger with
exercise. And when you stop exercising, the muscles shrink and you get weaker. That’s why people say “Use
it or lose it!” But most people don’t know that when they practice and learn new things, parts of their brain
change and get larger a lot like muscles do when they exercise.
Inside the cortex of the brain are billions of tiny
nerve cells, called neurons. The nerve cells have
branches connecting them to other cells in a
complicated network. Communication between these
brain cells is what allows us to think and solve problems.
When you learn new things, these tiny connections in
the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more that
you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells
grow. Then, things that you once found very hard or even
impossible to do—like speaking a foreign language or
doing algebra—seem to become easy. The result is a
stronger, smarter brain.
Figure 2: A typical nerve cell
The Real Truth About “Smart” and “Dumb”. No one thinks babies are stupid because they can’t talk.
They just haven’t learned how to yet. But some people will call a person dumb if they can’t solve math
problems, or spell a word right, or read fast—even though all these things are learned with practice. At first, no
one can read or solve equations. But with practice, they can learn to do it. And the more a person learns, the
easier it gets to learn new things—because their brain “muscles” have gotten stronger! The students everyone
thinks as the “smartest” may not have been born any different from anyone else. But before they started
school, they may have started to practice reading. They had already started to build up their “reading muscles.”
Then, in the classroom, everyone said, “That’s the smartest student in the class.” They don’t realize that any of
the other students could learn to do as well if they exercised and practiced reading as much. Remember, all of
those other students learned to speak at least one whole language already—something that grownups find
very hard to do. They just need to build up their “reading muscles” too.
What Can You Do to Get Smarter? Just like a weightlifter or a basketball player, to be a brain athlete,
you have to exercise and practice. By practicing, you make your brain stronger. You also learn skills that let
you use your brain in a smarter way—just like a basketball player learns new moves. But many people miss
out on the chance to grow a stronger brain because they think they can’t do it, or that it’s too hard. It does take
work, just like becoming stronger physically or becoming a better ball player does. Sometimes it even hurts!
But when you feel yourself get better and stronger, all the work is worth it!
Reading: THE MYTH OF MICHAEL JORDAN
Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players of all time. His average points per game is the
highest in NBA history – 31.5. He is one of two players to score more than 3000 points in a single season.
And he has 11 MVP awards – five for the regular season and six for the finals.
It was dazzling to watch Jordan play. People often spoke of his grace on the court. They talked
about his natural abilities. But the true story is different. When he was a sophomore in high school,
Michael Jordan didn’t even make the team. “It was embarrassing not making the team,” he says. “They
posted the roster [list of players] and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it. I remember
being really mad, too, because there was a guy who made it that wasn’t as good as me.”Someone else
might have sulked, or quit. But this setback only fueled Jordan’s desire to improve. “Whenever I was
working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room
without my name on it,” Jordan says, “and that usually got me going again.”
The physical education teacher at Jordan’s high school, Ruby Sutton, describes Jordan’s
commitment to the game in those days. “I would normally get to school between 7 and 7:30. Michael
would be at school before I would. Every time I’d come in and open these doors, I’d hear the basketball.
Fall, wintertime, summertime. Most mornings I had to run Michael out of the gym.”
Adapted from “Michael Jordan transcends hoops” by Larry [Link], 2007.
Reading: THE MYTH OF MICHAEL JORDAN
Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players of all time. His average points per game is the
highest in NBA history – 31.5. He is one of two players to score more than 3000 points in a single season.
And he has 11 MVP awards – five for the regular season and six for the finals.
It was dazzling to watch Jordan play. People often spoke of his grace on the court. They talked
about his natural abilities. But the true story is different. When he was a sophomore in high school,
Michael Jordan didn’t even make the team. “It was embarrassing not making the team,” he says. “They
posted the roster [list of players] and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it. I remember
being really mad, too, because there was a guy who made it that wasn’t as good as me.”Someone else
might have sulked, or quit. But this setback only fueled Jordan’s desire to improve. “Whenever I was
working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room
without my name on it,” Jordan says, “and that usually got me going again.”
The physical education teacher at Jordan’s high school, Ruby Sutton, describes Jordan’s
commitment to the game in those days. “I would normally get to school between 7 and 7:30. Michael
would be at school before I would. Every time I’d come in and open these doors, I’d hear the basketball.
Fall, wintertime, summertime. Most mornings I had to run Michael out of the gym.”
Adapted from “Michael Jordan transcends hoops” by Larry [Link], 2007.
Reading: THE MYTH OF MICHAEL JORDAN
Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players of all time. His average points per game is the
highest in NBA history – 31.5. He is one of two players to score more than 3000 points in a single season.
And he has 11 MVP awards – five for the regular season and six for the finals.
It was dazzling to watch Jordan play. People often spoke of his grace on the court. They talked
about his natural abilities. But the true story is different. When he was a sophomore in high school,
Michael Jordan didn’t even make the team. “It was embarrassing not making the team,” he says. “They
posted the roster [list of players] and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it. I remember
being really mad, too, because there was a guy who made it that wasn’t as good as me.”Someone else
might have sulked, or quit. But this setback only fueled Jordan’s desire to improve. “Whenever I was
working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room
without my name on it,” Jordan says, “and that usually got me going again.”
The physical education teacher at Jordan’s high school, Ruby Sutton, describes Jordan’s
commitment to the game in those days. “I would normally get to school between 7 and 7:30. Michael
would be at school before I would. Every time I’d come in and open these doors, I’d hear the basketball.
Fall, wintertime, summertime. Most mornings I had to run Michael out of the gym.”
Adapted from “Michael Jordan transcends hoops” by Larry [Link], 2007.
